Qualla: Mazabuka

Mazabuka: Introduction

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Acntx at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. The name is the story. Mazabuka, in the Tonga language, means "you have crossed." The correct form would be mwazabuka, from kuzabuka, to cross over a river; assimilation smoothed it to Mazabuka, which still carries the same meaning. The crossing in question was the Kafue River, near a place called Nanga, made by Tonga migrants who were settling the plateau long before colonial surveyors drew any map. The town that grew at that site eventually became a sugar town. It is now the headquarters of Zambia Sugar, producing more than 318,000 tonnes of crystalline sugar a year, and it sits on the southeastern edge of the Kafue Flats wetland at 1,067 metres above sea level.

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Image: Acntx at English Wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0

Mazabuka: A Town on the Flats

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User:Matthias Hille, CC BY-SA 4.0. Mazabuka is the capital of Mazabuka District, one of thirteen administrative units in Zambia's Southern Province. It lies about 135 kilometres southwest of Lusaka by road, along the Lusaka–Livingstone Highway, the T1. The geographical coordinates place it at 15°50'48"S, 27°44'51"...

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Image: User:Matthias Hille | CC BY-SA 4.0

Mazabuka: Refugees, 1941

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit LittleT889, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 1941, as German and Soviet occupations reshaped Eastern Europe, 50 Polish refugees were admitted to Mazabuka. It was a small local chapter of a much larger story: Polish civilians who had survived Soviet deportation and internment in Central Asia were, from 1942 onward, resett...

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Image: LittleT889 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Mazabuka: Growing Fast

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit LittleT889, CC BY-SA 4.0. Mazabuka's recorded population in 1990 was 24,596. By 2000 it was 47,148. By the 2010 census it stood at 71,700, having nearly tripled in 20 years. The town hosts two well-known Roman Catholic grant-aided day schools, St Edmunds Secondary and Mazabuka Girls Secondary, which toget...

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Image: LittleT889 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Mazabuka: The Munali Mine

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit LittleT889, CC BY-SA 4.0. A nickel mine 60 kilometres outside town has run through a complicated succession of owners over two decades. Albidon Limited of Australia obtained the permits in 2006 and began production at Munali in April 2008. The Chinese JINCHUAN mining group took over briefly from 2010, ple...

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Image: LittleT889 | CC BY-SA 4.0